JetBlue partners with Virgin Atlantic

Travelers on JetBlue will be able to connect through Boston, New York, Washington to catch flights to London Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic. JetBlue customers connecting in Orlando will be able to fly to London's Gatwick airport, Manchester, England and Glasgow, Scotland.

Passengers can purchase the JetBlue-Virgin Atlantic flights beginning this week.

JetBlue already has similar partnerships with Dubai's Emirates Airlines, Irish carrier Aer Lingus, South African Airways and American Airlines. These partnerships allow airlines to expand their available destinations without adding costs. They also feed more passengers into their respective networks.

resource: associated press

Obama Proposes $53 Billion for High-Speed Rail Network

February 09, 2011 10:14 PM --Travel Pulse

       In a speech at Philadelphia’s 30^th Street Station on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden proposed to spend $53 billion over the next six years to help promote the construction of a national high-speed, intercity passenger rail network. The proposal expands the $10.5 billion already spent on high-speed rail expansion since President Obama entered office, including $8 billion in the 2009 economic stimulus package. The Administration wants to spend $8 billion on new high-speed rail systems in the coming year and another $45 billion in the next five years. The money would focus on local services running between 90 and 125 mph and express services that would run between 125 and 250 mph.
       When the president unveils his proposed $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2012 next week, the details of the plan will be fully outlined. In his State of the Union address, Obama said that he was setting a goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years. The new investment would offer cities, states and private companies an application for seeking federal grants and loans to develop railway capacity. The new Republican-controlled Congress is expected to resist the proposal. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has already criticized the proposed expenditure.
       But some private groups are supporting the high-speed rail plan because it will create jobs and reduce the impact on the environment. Guillaume Mehlman, managing director of Alstom Transport's North American Region, said, "Alstom applauds the Obama Administration for proposing a $50 billion-plus investment in both high-speed and traditional passenger rail. As a leader in providing high-speed trains around the world and a company with significant rail manufacturing and engineering operations in the U.S., we are confident that such infrastructure will make a significant contribution in creating jobs, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing dependence on foreign oil. We look forward to getting to work -- and putting people to work -- in building America's new rail transportation network."
Mehlman noted that Alstom Transport operates the largest train manufacturing plant in the U.S., a state-of-the-art facility in Hornell, N.Y., along with a growing signaling business in Rochester, N.Y., that could also contribute to the growth of a national rail network. Along with VINCI, Virgin, and OHL, Alstom is part of a consortium of companies that will compete for high-speed rail opportunities in Florida. The group’s proposal to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain a full turnkey system will include a private financing dimension that offers the best solution for Florida.
       “Additional investments like the Administration is proposing can help accelerate the progress toward a full-fledged high-speed rail line in Florida,” Mehlman said. “While phase I from Tampa to Orlando is a critical first step, additional funding will allow a quicker implementation of the second leg of the line to Miami and deliver the maximum economic development benefits to Florida."
       In 2007, Alstom broke the world high-speed rail record at 357 mph and its trains have the capacity to routinely travel at 225 mph and above. Alstom Transport has 30 years of experience with high-speed rail, having built and maintained the TGV that has been widely used across Europe for decades, and more recently has rolled out its AGV trains that have distributed propulsion systems. Since 1981, Alstom has sold 670 Very High-Speed trains. Alstom’s Very High-Speed trains are already operating in France, Spain, the U.K., Korea, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Over 1.7 billion Very High-Speed customer trips have been safely undertaken in Alstom trains over a total distance equivalent to the distance between the earth and the moon.

Domestic Carriers Hike Fares for Third Time in a Month

January 10, 2011 12:53 PM

FareCompare, the airfare monitoring web site, has reported the third domestic airfare hike in the past month and the first of the year. Domestic airfares have been increased between $4 and $10 roundtrip ($2 and $5 one way) based on flight distance.

FareCompare said that it had detected a relatively minor amount of airfare hike activity in Northern/Midwestern cities this past week which normally wouldn’t have been a significant event until late Friday evening when Southwest Airlines, who rarely initiates an airfare hike, jumped in across most of their routes. Late Saturday evening almost all U.S. airlines with the exception of Delta matched the increase including, American, United/Continental, US Airways and Frontier (expect Delta to match late on Sunday).

Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare, said the company hasn’t seen this pace of domestic airfare hikes since 2007 when fuel prices began to jump dramatically in last quarter and airlines began to institute fuel surcharges (domestic fuel surcharges were removed in November of 2008 as oil prices began to dip from a peak that summer). These recent hikes effect the typically slower travel period of January and February as most airline tickets are sold within 30 days of departure.

While fuel prices have been hovering near recent highs it appears these are hikes are more likely related to continued domestic capacity discipline along with strengthening demand. FareCompare said there is no reason to believe that recent airfare hikes are in any way related to the recent spate of ticket distribution issues between online travel agencies, GDS and legacy carriers during the same time period.

Seaney said he has also seen over the past few months a renewal of domestic peak travel surcharges between $10 and $30 roundtrip for 2011 travel. Peak travel surcharges have been a popular way the past few years for domestic airlines to raise ticket prices on selective high volume time periods around holidays and summer travel in 2009. For more information, visit www.farecompare.com.